The ninth inning of tonight's game provided a compelling case for the White Sox to make Andrew Benintendi a main part of their DH formula in 2025.
There's the fact that he walked off the game by roping Hogan Harris' rolling 1-2 slider off the right-field foul pole for a walk-off homer to snap the White Sox's record 16-game home losing streak.
But that's only half of the argument. The White Sox also benefited from having somebody else in left field in the top of the ninth, because if Zach DeLoach didn't make a great throw to cut down Shea Langeliers at home plate to prevent Oakland from scoring the go-ahead run, the White Sox might still be playing, if they hadn't already lost.
And a 17th consecutive loss at Guaranteed Rate Field might've been the more likely outcome based on the way things were going. Justin Anderson entered the game in a rare save situation, and wasted no time jeopardizing it. He walked Lawrence Butler, gave up a single to Brent Rooker, then walked JJ Bleday to load the bases.
Perhaps Anderson could've minimized the damage with a double play ball, but Grady Sizemore made the regrettable move of removing Bryan Ramos for Jacob Amaya while shifting Lenyn Sosa from second to third, and when Langeliers hit a firm two-hopper to third, the ball ate up Sosa and deflected into shallow left field to score two runs, making it a one-run game.
Gus Varland entered, but if you said Aaron Bummer returned for a one-night engagement, it wouldn't have looked any different. There was the solid single by the first batter he faced to load the bases, then dicey luck on weak contact the rest of the way.
Fortunately, he came out even on the first mishit ball. Zach Gelof hit a chopper that cleared both Sosa and Amaya on the left side to tie the game at 6. Langeliers was then sent home, and if Benintendi's in left field, he scores easily. With DeLoach's OK arm out there, it was a literal bang-bang play with contact at the plate.
DeLoach's throw came in high, and Chuckie Robinson leapt to grab it, then tagged Langeliers as the Oakland catcher's path was blocked by Robinson's legs. Mark Kotsay challenged the out call, and while the replay showed that Robinson indeed physically obstructed Langeliers' direct path, he stepped away from the plate, toward the third-base dugout, before jumping to catch DeLoach's throw.
(That was the key distinction against a similar instance last year, when the White Sox beat the Rangers -- also by a score of 7-6 -- because Jonah Heim was called for a plate-blocking violation on a throw that he caught directly over the plate. Heim always had at least one foot standing directly in front of home for Elvis Andrus' entire path. Here, Robinson vacated the space until the throw took him back into it.)
The great play on both ends couldn't prevent the White Sox from blowing their 32nd save of the season, but it did restore sanity. Varland proceeded to generate two more weak batted balls. The first was a chopper to Sosa, who was able to make a routine play look that way, and the other was a pop fly in shallow right that Nicky Lopez caught, albeit with a little too much drama.
I don't think you can use "all's well that ends well" for a team that's still comfortably on pace to blast past the modern MLB record in losses, but the White Sox won their first home game since Aug. 12, and that's not nothing.
It should've been easier, and two times over. The White Sox tortured JT Ginn for 10 hits over four innings. They scored only three runs because nine of those hits were singles, and they lost two baserunners to unsuccessful stolen-base attempts, but it was still good enough for a 3-0 lead while Chris Flexen used the seldom-tried strikeout strategy to get through five scoreless. He allowed six hits and two walks, but negated them with eight K's.
Alas, the White Sox lost their first three-run lead in the sixth because Chad Kuhl didn't have his control. He walked two batters (one with the bases loaded) and plunked another, setting up a two-out Rooker single that tied the game at 3.
The White Sox managed to restore the three-run cushion over the seventh and eighth innings. For the first of two times on the evening, Benintendi thwarted a lefty-lefty pitching switch by singling off Scott Alexander with runners on the corners and one out in the seventh, putting the Sox ahead 4-3. Lopez went from first to third on the play and scored on Gavin Sheets' sac fly.
An inning later, DeLoach led off the eighth with a single and moved to second on a Sosa single. Just when it looked he'd go no further, Lopez lined a two-out single to right for an insurance run the Sox sorely needed.
Bullet points:
*After losing 21 consecutive Flexen starts, the White Sox have won his last two. Flexen hasn't been allowed to pick up the win himself, though.
*Sheets hit his first home run in a month, socking a high Ginn sinker out to right in the third.
*Benintendi, Sosa, Lopez and Luis Robert Jr. all had three-hit nights. The Sox had 16 hits in all, 14 of them singles.
*Enyel De Los Santos stranded Kuhl's two runners to close out the sixth, then handled the seventh and eighth inning himself. It was easily his best performance in a White Sox uniform.
